


Day 7 - Soul Mates

by Ladycarathis



Series: Ereri Week 2015 [7]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Mind Link, i have no idea how to tag this, levi pov, modern Au (kind of?), soul mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-20
Updated: 2015-06-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 08:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4172148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladycarathis/pseuds/Ladycarathis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So? Ready?” I asked him, a small smirk playing at my lips.<br/>Eren looked confused, surprised and then bewildered when he realized what I meant.<br/>“Here? Now? Really?!” he practically vibrated with giddiness and I nodded.<br/>“Yes. We won't get another place as secluded as this one.” I reasoned and started to strip to my underwear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 7 - Soul Mates

**Author's Note:**

> Im SO sorry this is two weeks late, but I kind of had writers block while I worked on it, so I had to take a little break.  
> But now it's finished and I hope you will all enjoy it!
> 
> Please note that this is still unbetad and that it's likely you'll find a few mistakes here and there!

 

I've been alone for centuries at this point, and I guess you could say I've had my fair share of bad luck along the way. A century ago the only other one of my kind died. Now I was the only one remaining, the only one that's left of a whole species.

Izzy and her mate of course had wanted me to live with them back when it was still the three of us against all odds, but I had declined. I wanted to let them have their privacy. I stayed in contact, though. A message every few years, telling them were I was, what I was doing and that they shouldn't worry abut me. Eventually, I came back to them when Farlan was about to die. We all had lived a dozen lifetimes and more by then, he even more than Isabel and I at that point, and he was tired. Tired of living in a world that held nothing new for him anymore, he had said. Izzy had wanted to die with him, but he told her off and the fight that followed must have been quite the sight.

When I arrived at their home, it was a war zone. My arrival, however, seemed to calm them both down considerably and I managed to convince Izzy not to stop living just because Farlan was about to die. He was going peacefully and of his own choice, something that none of the others of our folk had had a chance for back then, during the purge.

Izzy agreed to come travel the world with me after we buried Farlan, and for a decade or two it was fine. But I felt her becoming more and more detached from reality, living her life in dreams and memories of the past and eventually, she chose to die, too. I accepted her wish then and buried her next to Farlan, just like she had wished it to be.

And then I was alone. I wandered the earth aimlessly, becoming a myth, a legend. Something people wrote books and theories about, though all of them couldn't be further from the truth. Not that I would tell them. I'm not sure how much time had passed since Isabel's death, I avoided civilization most of the time now, living and travelling through the jungle’s of south America and the mountains of the Himalaya. I could say with certainty that I've seen pretty much every place on earth by now. I've even settled down on some occasions, becoming the Lord over some little place of land or just simply choosing to stay for a while when I liked a place.

I always came back to Izzy's and Farlan's graves though, updating them on the happenings of this grey, lonely world that held little to no fascination for me anymore. When it became apparent that I couldn't wander around anymore without being subject to countless bothersome questions, I built my home on the land that I inherited from Isabel and Farlan.

I had always held on to it, never selling it and always chasing away people who dared to trespass and just settle, even though it clearly said this was private land -even if unused and barren. I had a lot of savings I could rely on, so I really had no troubles and could built my home after my every wish. It took a while, but when it was finished, I was almost happy. Isabel and Farlan were always close now, I could talk to them whenever I felt the need to without having to travel an abundance of miles first.

I lived a secluded live, and even with the nearby city growing and growing, I never sold any of my land. I had miles and miles of land around my house that lay unused because I left it to nature. It was a wild mixture of trees, little forests, even, bushes, wild berries and open fields. I liked it.

Eventually the city just grew around my land, leaving me somewhere in the middle. I had to raise fences to keep people out, and I eventually had my home and land declared to be historically valuable. My house was over a hundred years old by then, almost two hundred, even.

And then came the time I barely ever left my house or land, and only when I couldn't bear my memories anymore, I began to write. I feared I would forget otherwise. I knew I had forgotten a lot already. To my surprise, my books seemed to be well liked, even to the point they wanted to make movies from them. But I declined, flat out telling them that I didn't want them to ruin my stories with their crappy screen writing and shitty jobs of acting. Of course those directors didn't like it, but they couldn't do anything about it.

At that point in my life I had almost forgotten, who I really was. I forgot I was a shifter, not a human. I hadn't shifted to my original form in over two centuries. I forgot the feeling, I didn't even remember how it felt to fly. But in this always evolving world where everything and everyone was watched it was too risky for me to do so. So I stayed in my human form, slowly forgetting.

Until one day, I awoke to an odd feeling. At first, I couldn't place it and was confused. I knew something was different, but I couldn't tell what it was. It bothered me for days, weeks even, never leaving me and never changing. I frowned, even consulted the internet -yes, I knew what that was and how it worked. But I found nothing, so I just settled for waiting for it to go away.

It never did.

It was always present and over time I got used to it and just stopped bothering. At that point it never occurred to me that I felt the presence of my soul mate in my mind. I had completely forgotten about the fact that shifters even had them. Izzy and Farlan hadn't been soul mates, but they chose to stay together back then, and the rest of my race had been extinct long before that. I was the last, with barely any contact to the world surrounding me and I never bothered with the lore of my kind.

Years passed until I learned what that presence in my mind was. And I only realised because I stumbled over Izzy's old diary in the library. I had put it there when I moved in and never once looked at it again. Until I needed inspiration for my newest book and filtered through my library at random.

“ _I always wondered who my soul mate might be. The elders said you'd notice the second they are born, because you can feel them in your mind. They're supposed to be always present, never leaving, never changing. It's said that with a particularly strong bond, you could even communicate feelings and emotions through it, but the pair needs to be really close to get to that stage. I don't think I'll ever find my mate. I don't want to. I'm happy with Farlan. And I don't need to live forever. This world is already tiring me out. I wonder how Levi does it...”_

I frowned, concentrating on the presence in my mind. I was so used to it by now, I didn't even have to put effort into seeking it out and poking it, trying to see if I could get a reaction. There was nothing, though. Well, I suppose it was to be expected. I had ever bothered with it before, so there was no way I would get a response now. I sighed and let my thoughts wander, surprised that I actually had a soul mate. I hadn't known that soul mates didn't have to be shifters, so I had already come to terms with the fact that I'd most likely live and die alone, when I finally chose so. Now, however, things had changed and I would keep poking at that bond with my soul mate, try to strengthen it, even though I didn't know who they were.

At least I knew the age of them. -Roughly, anyway. Time worked different for me than for humans. I hardly ever thought about days or weeks or even hours. Months were a concept I understood and used because of the deadlines for my books, but mostly I thought in years and decades and centuries. They all seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye to me. And my soul mate's presence I registered almost a decade ago. They were still only a child after human standards. And despite my wish to get to know them, I knew I probably never would. They could be anywhere on earth, far, far away from me. I tried not to let that thought drag me down, though.

So throughout the next years, I kept poking at that bond, sending emotions and feelings across at random and waited to see if I got anything in return. If I had made myself known to them. And then, one day, I got something. It was so shy and careful and hesitant and barely there that I almost didn't even catch it. I was overjoyed to be honest, but I tried not to overwhelm them, instead sending a reassuring feeling through the bond. I knew they were a teenager by now and they would be able to understand, but how would I even do that with just feelings to communicate? Right now, I could only hope to keep strengthening the bond and maybe manage to find them.

Somewhere, somehow.

I got back a mixture of wonder and surprise from them and I couldn't help the small smile that made its way to my lips. I was happy that I had at least this much contact to them now -I wouldn't let go of that. But I didn't want to suffocate them either, so I tried to reign in my feelings. I shouldn't have been afraid, though, since after the initial shock and surprise I was hit with waves of feelings constantly. I practically felt everything they felt throughout their day, and while that gave me a pretty good impression of their emotional state, it still confused me from time to time.

They could go from content and happy to boiling anger in a matter of seconds. At first I just tried to ignore it, but all those bouts of anger distracted me from my work, so I eventually tried to calm them down, whenever I felt their anger rise. Pretty soon I was sending a constant wave of calmness over the bond in hopes that it would help somewhat.

After one especially strong outburst, however, I gave up. I tried to block them out. I couldn't be bothered with their petty little temper tantrums, not when I was nearing the deadline for my next book and still had over a hundred pages to write. The last thing I send across to them was annoyance, before I built a mental wall, meant to keep their feelings out. To my surprise it worked. I could still feel their presence, but their feelings couldn't get through to me. That was all I had wanted, so I went back to writing, satisfied with my new accomplishment.

When I stopped a few hours later, my wall was still up, though I was sure that by now my soul mate should have calmed down. Slowly, cautiously even, I lowered the mental wall. Only to be hit by a wave of worried and scared feelings that clearly asked if I was okay and what had happened.

Oh.

so they hadn't noticed it at all in their anger, huh? I sighed and tried to put together what I felt in a wave of feelings, just like they had done. -I usually concentrated on just one thing I wanted to get across, so this was quite new for me- but I managed. Annoyance, tiredness, capitulation and determination were sent across the bond from my end, and in exchange I received shock and devastation, followed by the strong feeling of them being sorry. I huffed. I knew they hadn't done it on purpose, after all. After sending a wave of acceptance and reassurance, meant to say that it was fine now, I received an overwhelming burst of relieve. They must've feared I would block them again.

After that, I got the feeling that they tried to reign in their temper for my sake. It didn't always work, but I made sure they knew I appreciated the effort. Eventually, we fell into something resembling a routine and even managed to hold conversations with our feelings. It was weird at first, but we worked it out. Usually it wasn't more than a questioning feeling one would send and then would be answered by the other. That way, we communicated how our days were or if something worth noting had happened.

I was content with that and I didn't even think about evolving our bond further than that and I doubted that my soul mate even knew anything about this bond at all, so I was quite surprised when suddenly pictures kept popping up in my mind that I couldn't place. There was a room with mint alls and white furniture. It looked messy, but not too bad. There were drawings everywhere, but the picture was gone before I could make any more details. Then another one. A hand holing the photograph of a boy, but it was too blurry to make out anything noteworthy.

I frowned. Was my mind playing tricks on me? I hadn't left my house in a long while and I knew I'd never seen a room like that or that boy anywhere before. I was confused and at first didn't catch the repressed anticipation radiating over the bond with my soul mate. When I did, I still couldn't really understand. I sent a question across. And I got another picture of the room from before, accompanied by the strong feeling of wanting to success.

_Oh._

This time, I was shocked. And impressed. I hadn't thought this to be possible at all, and I mad sure to let them know, before I tried to send a mental image over to them, too. When I received a wave of happiness, I smiled.

Now we could communicate a lot better than before, and over the next years, we perfected that way of communication between us. I learned how my soul mate looked by him sending me mental images of himself standing in front of a mirror and after a bit of poking and prompting from him I did the same. We still didn't know the other's name or where we lived though. However, I I thought I didn't need to know. I was happy knowing that my soul mate existed somewhere in this world and that he was fine. I didn't need to meet him or talk to him from face to face.

By now, two decades had passed since I first felt his presence and almost half of it we've been constantly communicating through our mind link. I still wrote my books and I was surprised when he showed me a picture of my most recent work, accompanied by a questioning feeling. I was momentarily confused and let him know just that. Was he asking if I knew or liked the book or did he want to know if I was the author? Though there should be no way for him to know that, right? I felt a small wave of frustration from him, before I got an image of him reading, this time with an even stronger questioning feeling underlying it. Ah, so he wanted to know if I've read it. I sent amusement back to him, opting for not sending an image to that. Now he was confused. I chuckled to myself and decided to enlighten him by sending him a picture of my own hand, holding a pen over a piece of paper with some writing on it. There was no way he wouldn't understand that. It seemed to take him a moment, but when realization hit him, a wave of disbelieve and excitement washed over me. He was giddy and I could tell he had many questions waiting to be answered, though with our current way of communication there was no way. I got another wave of frustration and tried to calm him. It was okay as it was, after all.

We should be glad we had this strong of a bond without ever having met. This kind of connection had been rare, even between pairs that were together every day. Though that may just be the key to it. My soul mate and I had no other way of communication, so we had to rely on our mind link for it. We couldn't just talk to each other, right? I had to admit, out of curiosity I had tried to talk to him through our minds, but I never got an answer, so I figured it didn't work.

However, I was suddenly pulled out of my musings by someone screaming in my ear.

“ _Hey! Can you hear me? Hellooo?”_

I winced and held my hands over my ears in reflex, before I looked around for the intruder. Needless to say, there was none. For a moment, I was confused, and then there was that same voice again.

“ _Hey, say something! I know you're there! Heeey!”_

I looked around again, hands still protectively clamped over my ears. Nothing. I frowned. What the hell was that? Where did that voice come from? I received my answer just a second later.

_“Hey, if you can actually hear me, can you at least send something back?”_

This time, the voice wasn't yelling, which I was grateful for. And I actually understood what was being said. My soul mate had just talked to me. Through our link. I was stunned and made sure to let him know.

“ _So you do hear me! Great! Can you say something? Anything is fine!”_

I pondered for a moment and then settled for a simple _“Hello?”_

I was not prepared for the wave of joy and elation thrumming through our bond, accompanied by my soul mate's happy blabbering.

“ _Hey, slow down, kid!”_

I chuckled. Now that I actually had the possibility to talk to him, I made sure to use it.

“ _I'm not a kid, though. I'm 23.”_   he corrected me, which only amused me further.

I had centuries on my back, I was older than he'd ever be, so of course he was a kid to me. I didn't tell him, though.

“ _Yeah, fine. What's your name anyway, kid?”_   I wanted to know.

If he didn't want me to call him 'kid', he'd better tell me his name. I heard him huff through the bond and was surprised that even that was possible.

“ _I'm Eren. And you?”_

“ _Levi.”_

“ _Levi. What a weird name, never heard that before.”_

I shrugged. His wasn't as common either, I supposed.

“ _Like you're one to talk.”_   I dismissed the topic, _“So, any ideas why we can suddenly talk to each other? What changed?”_ I wondered and could feel him send the mental equivalent of a shrug.

“ _I don't know. I guess I just really wanted to talk to you? Is it true? You really wrote that book?”_

“ _Not just that. I wrote many over the years.”_   I affirmed and got astonishment back from him.

I smiled. Eren was just like always, there was nothing different in our connection, it had only become easier now.

We talked almost constantly now and I learned a lot about him -more than I ever had in all the years before put together. I learned where he lived, his work and his hobbies. I got the names of his best friend and sister, I learned that he couldn't stand that one guy named 'Jean' and in return I told him little bits and pieces about myself. I still didn't want him to know that I wasn't human. Not that I was afraid of him, but by now I had learnt that Eren was easily excitable and sometimes said things he'd better kept to himself. Months passed by like that and eventually, Eren started to ask me if we could meet.

 _“I want to see you, Levi. I want to actually talk to you and know that you're really real and not just something my mind came up with.”_ he reasoned.

And though I tried to convince him that I was indeed real, he wanted proof. Proof that didn't come in the form of emails or handwritten letters. I sighed. I didn't have a phone -well, I did, but I had no idea how to actually use it- so I couldn't call him. And I doubted he'd be happy with just that. I knew I couldn't postpone it forever, so I eventually gave in.

“ _Fine. We can meet. But you'd have to come here. I'm not leaving my land.”_

“ _Land as in country or land as in your property?”_ Eren wanted to know, having learned by now that at times my way of talking was a little 'ancient, like he'd called it.

“ _The latter. I'm fairly sure we're living in the same country.”_   I deadpanned.

“ _Oh, so I have to come to your house?”_

“ _Exactly.”_

“ _Okay! That reminds me -you never actually told me where you live!”_

I sighed. I knew I hadn't told him the name of the city that surrounded my little enclave of solitude.

But I told him now.

“ _What? That isn't even that far away! I could get there in just a few hours by car!”_

I frowned. Weren't cars supposed to be awfully slow? I asked him and got a hearty laugh in return.

“ _Levi! How old are you to believe something like that? That was about a hundred years ago, silly!”_

I suppressed a sigh. Well, it sounded about right. That was roughly the amount of time I hadn't left my land, so I really shouldn't be too surprised.

“ _You could say that.”_   I let him know.

Eren huffed, having calmed down a little. He must've sensed there was more to it than I was willing to share right now.

“ _Okay. So anyway. Since you're not that far away, how about I come by at the next long weekend?”_   he proposed and I found myself nodding.

As far as I knew, that was still a little ways away and left us with enough time to prepare and plan.

“ _I guess that's fine.”_   I let him know.

Time went by in a flash and before I knew it, the weekend were Eren would come to visit me arrived. I had told him my address and that he could just ignore the 'keep out' sign at the gate and just come in.

“ _Wow, you sure are rich, aren't you? How can you afford this place? It's in the middle of the city!”_ he said through our link and I knew he must've arrived at the gate.

“ _Sort off? This is my family's property, passed down through the generations. And since it's declared a historical landmark, they can't come and claim the place or buy pieces off of it to built stuff.”_   I explained.

It was the easiest way for him to understand.

“ _Now, are you going to come in or not?”_   I mused.

“ _I am, I am! Jeez, impatient, aren't we?”_   Eren chuckled and I sent a mental snap at him.

Of course I was. Who wouldn't be? Even if we'd known each other for a decade by now. It took him another five minutes to pull up at my front door. When I heard him slam the door of his car, I felt a rush of nervousness and nausea that wasn't just my own. That somewhat soothed me, to know that he felt the same as me.

“Levi? Care to open the door?” I heard him ask, _actually_ ask and not through our bond.

His voice sounded a little different than what I was used to over our link, but the melody of it and his speaking pattern was the same, so I took a deep breath and opened.

“Hey!” he greeted me and I had to look up to actually see his face. Damn, he was tall. Before I could say anything, though, he blurted out “Wow, are you short!”

I glared at him for a second before I shrugged and just let it go.

“Yeah. So? You're just unreasonably tall.” I shot back before I stepped aside to let him in.

Eren chuckled, giving up.

“I just meant, you where shorter than I'd imagined you to be. Your height never really came across through the connection.”

I shrugged again.

“It's fine.” _“No need to justify yourself.”_

Without noticing it, I fell back to our mind link. It was easier for me than actual talking.

“Okay.” Eren smiled and then I showed him through the house.

By the time I was done he was stunned.

“Wow. This place is awesome. It feels like I somehow time travelled a few centuries to the past. How did your family manage to keep it like this?” he wondered when we settled down in the salon.

I shrugged.

“I guess we just liked the place like this and never felt the need to change it or get it up to more modern standards.”

By now and thanks to Eren's constant chatter I was a little more comfortable to actually talk to him. Though I kept falling back to our link when I needed to get a feeling across. Eren didn't seem to mind and occasionally did the same, but it was obvious that he was used to talking and being around people, the complete opposite of me. I was a total recluse with barely any human contact.

When I told Eren that, he was determined to change that. I was hesitant, unsure about that, but he wouldn't budge and said he'd get me used to people again. I had no chance against him. He was my soul mate and I couldn't just not do what would make him happy.

So I complied. -Under the condition that we'd take it slow, to which he gladly agreed. After that first weekend, Eren made it a point to come by at least every other week, and occasionally he brought his friends, too. Though I didn't doubt they were suspicious of me, especially the girl didn't seem to like me one bit. It got a little better as time passed by, though. And by then, I was even able to leave my grounds and stroll through the city without being startled by every other sound or bringing chaos to traffic.

One time, Eren even took me to his place. It was the most I had seen from the outside world in years, and I appreciated it very much. I had never really been afraid of the world, but when I first lost touch with the world, I thought it was too much of a hassle to get reattached to it, so I didn't bother. Now that I had Eren, however, I wanted to explore again. To see the world one more time. When I told him that, he was all for it and practically urged me to go.

And I went. Not far, but still. I chose to stay in the states for my first travel, but I knew I had my restless nature back. While on that trip, I seriously considered to just keep going, like I had done so often in the past. In the end the thought of Eren brought me back home. He had wanted to come with me, still concerned with my lacking 'people-skills', as he had put it but I had assured him that I'd be fine. And I was. During my time away, I of course stayed in constant contact with him, to reassure him that I was okay and for my own selfish reasons.

Even before we had met for the first time, Eren had become my anchor, my safe haven in this chaotic new world I was exploring. He was the one constant I could always rely on, but I didn't think he thought of me in the same way. And I made sure he never knew how I truly felt about him. I was happy with the close friendship we had developed and didn't want to take any risks losing it.

That is why I was surprised to find Eren sitting on my porch when I came back from the trip.

“Eren? What are you doing here?” I wondered, walking up to him and startling him back to the present.

“Levi!” he jumped up and closed the gap between us with two long strides, enveloping me in a hug.

I stood frozen, not realizing what just happened.

“Uhm, Eren? Are you okay?” I tried to carefully wiggle out of his embrace, but he just held tighter, burying his face in the crook of my neck.

“ _I missed you.”_   he let me know over the link, underlining the message with a feeling of loneliness and neediness.

-Both things I never thought he'd feel because of me. Careful and a little awkward, I patted his shoulder while I relaxed a little and allowed him to hold me.

“ _I missed you, too.”_   I let him know, though I reigned in my feelings, making sure he only received a feeling of calmness and content.

I was happy to be back home, and I let Eren know that, too.

“Next time you leave, I'm coming with you!” he mumbled and I sighed.

I knew that I couldn't change his mind if he really wanted to come. Anything I'd say would just strengthen his determination to come with me.

“We'll see about that.” I offered after a second, breaking free of his hold.

“Now, I'm beat and tired and I just want to sleep before I have to unpack.”

Eren nodded and let go of me. I thought that maybe he'd back up a little then, but he stayed impossibly close to me at all times, almost hovering beside me. It was annoying, but I let it happen anyway. I even chose to take my nap on the couch in the living room instead of my bed so he could stay close.

“ _I'm sorry, Levi. This is weird, I've never felt the need to be this close to you before ever since we've met and I really don't want to be clingy but I can't help it. And I'm sorry if it's bothering you.”_   he told me through our link, the feeling of confusion over his own behaviour strongly accompanying his words.

“ _It's fine. I think I know why you feel that way.”_   I told him and made myself comfortable.

“ _Really? Why?”_

“ _Later, Eren. I'll tell you when I'm rested.”_

Eren huffed, but he accepted my postponing that explanation for after my nap.

After my nap I took him to the library and handed him Isabel's diary. I had no second thoughts about him having and reading it. Izzy had the whole concept of soul mates and the extend of how having one influenced your life explained in there.

“Read this. I'm sure it will answer most of your questions. When you're done, I'll explain the rest.” I told him and then left him to go and unpack my stuff.

I knew he'd be busy for at least a few hours, so I also started to clean up the place while I was at it. Three months of absence had left my home in a rather dusty state and I needed to get rid of all the accumulated dust bunnies. While I was working, I felt occasional shifts in Eren's mood, but since he didn't come running I figured everything was fine. I was just when he came seeking me out, Isabel's diary still in his hands.

“Is that true? Is everything that's written in here true?”

I nodded.

“Levi. I-I'm... I'm not sure I got that right, but according to this book, you should be _at least_ four hundred years old. How is that possible? No human lives that long!”

“Haven't you paid any attention, Eren? The book clearly stated that we're no humans. We just look like you because we chose so. And I'm about 700 years old, actually. I'm not too sure about the exact number, though.”

Eren gaped.

“So -we're supposed to be soul mate's? That's why we can talk to each other in our minds?”

Again, I nodded.

“That's the only explanation there is.”

“But, that means we'll have to be together, right? Like a couple?”

This time, I shook my head.

“No. We don't need to. It's perfectly fine for us to be just friends.”

Though it was highly likely that he'd never go and get into a romantic relationship with anyone else as long as I was alive. It's hard to do that when you constantly feel the presence of your soul mate in your mind.

“Would you want to, though? I- I mean... uhm-” Eren actually stuttered and blushed and I had to realize that he was actually considering it.

Considering me. Being with me. For a moment I couldn't do anything but look at him, not sure how I was supposed to answer that question. In the end, I couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't sound harsh or neglecting, so I chose to ask a question myself, hoping to postpone that particular topic.

“Doesn't it bother you? That I'm no human and practically almost a millennium old, I mean.”

“Huh? No? I mean, you don't feel like you're old. Not _that_ old. You're not an ancient spirit or something. And I've yet to see proof that you're not a human, so...” he trailed off, already regaining his confidence.

That actually surprised me a little, but I accepted it, just happy that he'd apparently forgotten about his previous question.

“Come on, I want you to see something.” I told him then and made to leave the house.

He followed me quickly enough and once outside, fell in step right beside me.

“Where are we going?” he wanted to know.

“You'll see. It's not that far.”

A few minutes later, we reached the place. It was a small canopy under a large, very old tree, and by its trunk there were two headstones, both old and withered, but one could still read the inscriptions. Eren squinted, trying to decipher them.

“Fa... Farlan?”

I nodded and pointed to the second headstone.

“Isabel.”

This time Eren sounded more confident in reading the name and I nodded again. Eren looked at the dates and gasped.

“It's true!” he breathed, stumbling a few steps back when realization sunk in.

“Yes.” I agreed, trying to ground him by sending a calm, reassuring feeling through our bond.

It seemed to help.

“So, what are you, if not a human? How could you live for this long?”

I knew that question was bound to come.

“I'm a dragon shifter. We usually lived for thousands of years. I'd be still considered young by our standards, actually.” I smiled a little, remembering what little I knew about my folk.

“A dragon shifter?” Eren looked sceptic, but I confirmed my words with a nod and a mental image of myself in my dragon form.

“But- That's- How? I mean -How is that possible?”

I shrugged. Explaining that would take a long time and I didn't feel the wish to do it now. So I put it off for now and turned back to the house.

“Can I see? Can you change or shift or whatever you call it now?”

I frowned and looked at him over my shoulder.

“I could, sure. But how would you explain a living dragon in the middle of the city? It would end in a witch hunt like back in medieval age. They'd try to catch me and study me, most likely even try to rip me apart and stuff like that. No, thanks.”

That gave Eren's mood quite the damper.

“Sorry. I didn't think that through.” he apologized.

“It's fine. I'll show you, if you really want me to, but it can't be here. Or anywhere near civilization, for that matter.”

“So that means I can come with you the next time you go travelling?” he asked, eager for me to allow it.

I nodded.

“Yes.”

It would take us over a year to arrange everything and during that time our relationship hadn't really changed, though I could tell Eren wanted it to. He tried to hide his feelings from me, but sometimes he just couldn't hold his walls up like I had eventually taught him to, so I could feel the vast amount of affection and love he felt for me. Of course those feelings weren't exactly one-sided, but I was hesitant to let our relationship get to that level. We were awfully close as it was already and I really couldn't ask for more that that.

Anyway, the time for our two-months long trip all over the world had come and for the first month we covered the more populated areas, the big cities one had to see at least once in their life. Paris, New York, London, Venice, Istanbul -which I still knew by its older name 'Constantinople'-, Tokyo were just some of them, since we never stayed for more than just two or three days. And then we turned to the more desolated places, wild jungles and ruins of long lost civilizations and cultures.

I planned to show Eren how I really looked at one of those old temples. We were in the middle of the jungle, somewhere in Cambodia at the time, and I knew that by day the ruins would be flooded with tourists, but thankfully, I knew of a few places that wouldn't be. I had checked over the internet which ruins had been opened for tourists and which weren't. I also learned that there were quite a few that still hadn't been discovered at all, so I planned to take Eren there.

It was a long walk through uneven terrain and by the time we'd arrived at our destination it would be late afternoon. When I told Eren we'd be staying the night, he was shocked, but quickly relaxed when he learned that I had brought a tent and some blankets. Not that I'd need either. I planned to sleep in my dragon form, fully intending to make use of what little time I had away from civilization.

By the time the sun was setting we were done with setting up the tent and Eren had comfortably settled beneath the blankets.

“So? Ready?” I asked him, a small smirk playing at my lips.

Eren looked confused, surprised and then bewildered when he realized what I meant.

“Here? Now? Really?!” he practically vibrated with giddiness and I nodded.

“Yes. We won't get another place as secluded as this one.” I reasoned and started to strip down to my underwear.

Catching Eren's confused look and blushing cheeks, I explained “I don't want to rip my clothes. I haven't shifted in over two hundred years, so I'm not sure I could without ripping them to shreds.”

At that, he nodded and relaxed.

I took a deep breath and then let go of my human form. Shifting took a few minutes and I could feel Eren's eyes on me throughout all of it.

“Wow.” he whispered when I was done and instead of my human body a huge silverish-blue dragon lay at the same spot, curled up and comfortable.

A deep rumble formed in my chest as I watched Eren get up and come over to me.

“Can I... can I touch you?” he asked, looking at me in wonder and amazement.

“ _Go ahead.”_   I allowed him over our link, stretching my wings and relishing in the feeling of the last sun rays warming them.

Eren reached out and carefully let his fingers glide over my scales. I allowed myself a low, appreciative hum when he touched me. It felt nice.

“ _I still can't believe this is really you, but it is, isn't it?”_   he asked over the bond.

I lowered my head, imitating a nod.

“ _If I hadn't seen you change I would probably be freaking out right now.”_   he chuckled.

I believed him, of course and then uncurled myself.

“ _Come on, get on.”_   I told him, only to get another confused look from him.

“ _What?”_

“ _Get on. I want to show you something.”_

I sent amusement over the link to him, together with the mental image of him sitting on my back. Now he understood and quickly climbed up on my back. As soon as he was safely sitting and managed to hold on, I spread my wings and a second later we were up in the air, soaring over the small clearing where we'd set up the tent. Eren had yelped, not prepared for the sudden take off and I let out another deep rumble from my chest, amused at his antics and happy because I was flying again. It just felt too good and I allowed my joy to freely flow through the link, letting Eren know how exactly I felt at that moment.

We didn't talk while I flew, but our bond was thrumming with unsaid feelings and a newfound understanding for each other.

Back at the small clearing I let Eren down and curled up again. I thought he'd go to sleep -it had gotten rather late and we did have a long day- but he came back out of the tent, holding his blankets and began to put them down right next to me. I sent him a questioning feeling, but he just shrugged and lay down, curling up at my side. I let out a puff of air and let him do as he pleased, even curling my body around him protectively while he drifted off to sleep.

It was as though we had come to a silent agreement earlier, when all our feelings had been out in the open. We didn't need to say anything, _we knew_ , and it was fine.

We were soul mates after all, and we would stay together as long as we could.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> \- I am so not sorry for that summary, btw x)  
> I hope you all enjoyed it and had fun reading!
> 
> Now I'll be back to working on my regular fics, so expect at least one update during the coming week :)  
> (well, at least 'll try xD)
> 
> If you want to share this work, there's a post on [my tumblr](http://ladycarathis.tumblr.com/), so you can reblog from there :D  
> 


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